I'm a staunch Catholic who can't stand the imposition of my personal and my church's morality on those who don't share it. On sites like this, I'm a screwball theist, and on Catholic websites, I'm one of Satan's middle managers for not upholding the party line. Funny how much is relative, ain't it?

I think the decision is the only one that can be made by those who are not allowing inappropriate influences to sway them. The separation of church and state is, in my opinion, critical to the proper governance of a nation interested in protecting the minority from the will of an oppressive majority.

I'm really very happy to see there is someone here who holds the same ideas I've had! I thought I was alone here.

I too begin playing in the 1970s (1976 to be exact), but alas I am only in my fifth decade, and I too bow to DrDeath's seniority.

I started in 76 too! Late fourth for me though. (Very late...*grumble*)

Another Grognard!

Gives Secret Handshake.

Returns Secret Handshake. Shows Secret Decoder Ring!

I was turned on to Firefly by a friend. He gave me the list showing the proper order of the shows. Watched it. Loved it. (Note: I usually dislike Joss Whedon shows) I don't push it on people, but I do have Serenity wallpaper. And bobble-heads. Shiny!

I love playing Black Crusade, but the pbp players and GM's are completely unreliable. (Note: Before the suggestion "Well why don't you DM, then" is lobbed around: It's because I'm a terrible DM and wouldn't inflict that sort of misery on anyone. I may gripe about reliability, but I do have the common decency to know my own faults as well and admit them.)

I'm from the Chicago area, and sometimes I put ketchup on my hot dogs just for spite.

Been looking at the Mythic ruleset, and it seems like the upper tiers just bring too much. Ive also heard that it gets out of hand from people in my group.

My question is how much mythic is reasonablr? Tier 2? Tier 4? Just looking for experience and opinions here.

Our GM stopped at 2, and is seriously considering de-powering us completely. I blame myself. Actually, I blame my gnome sorc who can pull any spell off the list to cast as he so chooses. I have a tendency to trivialize a LOT of encounters due to proper spell selection.

Houserule I didn't get a chance to use yet: Track quivers instead of arrows.

If you roll a 1 on an attack roll using an arrow, it was your last arrow from that quiver.

So wait a sec...if I pull an arrow out of a freshly filled quiver, and then roll a 1, does that mean I dump all the other arrows out and find a new quiver? That seems kinda stupid.

It's an abstraction. There isnt any tracking of a "freshly filled quiver", the only thing that register in that system are "nearly empty quivers" - if you pull an arrow out of a quiver and roll a 1 it means it was nearly empty. Anything else means it wasn't.

If you analyse any abstraction closely enough you get silly results. The thief picks a lock and the next morning the wizard can cast fireball...

Then that means the the thief was actually a witch because she was made of wood!!!

Not the same without ant man. I don't see Tony making ultron, I just don't. He's not a philanthropist/scientist in the same mold.

In an interview, Whedon himself stated how he really wanted to use Pym for the Ultron origin, but Ant Man was already in development and he couldn't step on Wright's toes. Tony is smart enough—especially with J.A.R.V.I.S. established as Chekov's A.I. back in Iron Man (I)—has the resources, is an untrusting control freak, and was looking for a way to get out of the armor since IM3... he has great believable motivations for developing a robot peacekeeper(s) program. And he has an ego big enough to think he can pull it off successfully, despite a track record (starting with his dad) of inventions that turn out to dangerously malfunction and/or be misused.

Actually, with S.H.I.E.L.D. imploding, he would see a void (Global emergency response) that would need filled.

I could easily see Tony making an army of killbots without batting an eye, especially with whedon at the helm of the film.

Why not? He already had the House Party Protocol with J.A.R.V.I.S. driving the suits. The next step would be to make them autonomous.

We organize international events, usually with Bulgarians and Croats as well.
Next year, we are most probably going to make a really big event, a sort of Balkans Drachenfest (not nearly as big, of course).

I did some Vampire LARP-ing once upon a time. Had lots of fun playing the "dangerous" Gangrel (It helped that I was just out of the military and still buff). Eventually I moved away from it.

It is impossible to be sexist toward men in the same way that it is impossible to be racist toward white people or classist toward the ruling class. Please note that I'm using these "-ist" terms in the context of their existence as oppressive systems, not as simple prejudice.

Because the system never favors women in western society... It's not like women suffer lighter sentences for the exact same crimes or anything...

Nope. The Patriarchy (tm) always rigs the game in favor of those evil manspreading males...

What crimes are you referring to? For certain crimes, I grant that this is possible, I just don't know what they are. Although, have you heard of Susan B. Anthony?

I know, for instance, that men who beat or murder their intimate partners with their bare hands (including strangulation) receive less jail time and less harsh sentences than women who murder or injure abusive male partners with guns, because they are often less physically able to defend themselves without a weapon. But shooting someone is for some reason not as serious a crime as strangling someone.

Since you want to be deliberately obtuse, try comparing the sentencing of male teachers who have had sex with their students against female teachers who have done the same. Now (for the record) I'm not advocating for male sex offenders to get lighter sentencing.

And at least some of us can agree that it's rooted in misogyny (so even when men are oppressed by sexism, it's because of a sexist valuing of masculinity and devaluing of femininity).

Nice try.

What you're saying here is that when a man hates women, he's wrong, and sexist; but when a woman hates men, it's really the man's fault anyway, so he's still wrong. Grow up. Take responsibility for yourself and your actions.

Yeah, hiding this now. Some of this crap being bandied about is disgusting.

Honestly curious about this one...

National Review is about the lowest level of "journalism" you can get, and various 'isms are just beneath the surface. It gives me a good perspective on the ideas of people who read/post links to it however.

Of you could just try reading the article linked and realize it is written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Hmmm, well, didn't really get into video games at home until the Sega Genesis. Luckily most of the games they released have been re-released on the Ultimate Sonic Sega Genesis Collection...things like the Phantasy Star Series (IV is still the best), Beyond Oasis, Shining Force I and II, and such.

From the 90s, I still can play all the great PS1 games on the PS3, so though the Playstation one isn't really around anymore, the games still play well! All the Squaresoft games, especially the remakes of Final Fantasy 1-6, Final Fantasy VII and IX (sorry, never really got into VIII), and especially Chrono Trigger and the original Chrono Cross. Also especially love both Lunar games.

As for PC games, loved all the Infinity Engine games as well as the original Diablo. Also loved the X-wing Trilogy (some of which are finally getting releases on GoG) and who can forget (well, a lot probably) the wizardry games!

The one game we all played on the Sega Genesis was "Star Control". Also loved playing the original Sid Meier's Pirates. People wonder how I can know so much about the Carib...now you know the rest of the story.

Metagaming is when you make gameplay decisions based on things outside of gameplay.

In competitive games, this often refers to using your knowledge of what strategies other people are likely to bring to an event to inform your decision of what to play yourself, and even what play to make during a game based on having seen your opponent make a play that is typical of a given strategy. In such games, metagaming is considered a fundamental skill of the game.

In roleplaying games, the dividing line tends to be "in-character knowledge" versus "player knowledge". Any time the character does something based on something that the player knows, that's "metagaming". This could be choosing to use a different weapon than normal without having gained in-character information to prompt such a decision;

I agree with this portion...

Jiggy wrote:

or choosing to explore an area they would have no real interest in because the player wants to make sure to get all the loot/XP; or in many cases, even continuing to adventure once the cash available from selling all their gear would allow them to live in luxury the rest of their lives.

But not these two examples. Finding a tunnel branch or portion of the woods that you haven't explored and then exploring it for the loot shouldn't be considered "metagaming" simply because the player has not acted on out-of-game knowledge (using the reason you gave...). If the player "knows" there is an NPC or loot that would help end an section of the adventure faster (but the character does not), then it could be considered metagaming.

By the same token, completing an adventure (even if it is for the loot) shouldn't be considered metagaming.

From my lovely niece and her boyfriend I got a Star Wars t-shirt
From my other lovely niece I got a pair of Star Wars coffee mugs
From my youngest lovely niece I got a THIRD Star Wars coffee mug and some tasty hot cocoa to go in it.
My Mom got me a box of cookies from my favorite bakery

I got a Build-a-Bear Fluttershy plushie for my grand-niece(!!!) Yeah I'm weirded out that I have one of those too!

And for my favorite redhead I got some window decorations for her room, a scrap book set and some outfits she had pointed out.

I got my older brother a copy of Avalon Hill's "Midway!" (boardgame re-enactment of the WWII Battle of Midway Is.) We used to play that when we were kids (late 60's early 70's) and it went missing quite a while ago so when I saw it I grabbed it.

As an aunt and a one-time 4-yro child, words from an adult can often have a powerful and lasting impact on how a child develops her (and his) sense of self and self-worth. Ill-/un-considered words doesn't mean the adult is a bad person, or sexist, but those words can still make their mark and be internalized by children.

I don't say this to cast blame upon your character or parenting skills--ain't nobody perfect.

I am currently running a gnome sorc (9th lvl) with the Sylvan bloodline. I have a Large tiger (named "Baby") upon whom I regularly cast Mythic Mage Armor (+6 bonus). Currently she is rolling Improved Natural Armor and Power Attacks for feats.

With MMA her AC is a silly 27.

She has three attacks each at +9 (after PA) due to ridiculous strength bonuses after she grew to Large size (sorc has Boon Companion).

She is basically a tar pit. She will charge in, claw/claw/bite with grab to grapple and rake for extra damage after a successful CMB.

I rather like this staff of the monkey king from the forbidden kingdom [url]http://www.martialartsactionmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Jason.jpg [/url] however most metals in special materials specifically states a quarterstaff can't be made out of them. From the colour I was thinking Elysium bronze but I wanted to know if there was a valid reason you couldn't/shouldn't do this first?

Please don't say talk to the Gm I'm not asking is this allowed in a given world but would making a quarterstaff out of metal specifically Elysium bronze break something I'm missing.

Using Elysium Bronze as sheathing for a quarterstaff will giver the user crotch-rot and cause vermin to attack them on sight.

Didn't see a thread on this. Here was a guy that fueld some of my RPG game ideas with his TV series. Perhaps a wee bit before many of those on these boards time, many of his series had fantastical elements, a team to deal with them, and an adventure. Actually, when I think of it, almost all of his series had a team. Even Magnum PI which was a solo PI had a team which showed up in most episodes (four guys, the strong guy, the rogue, Magnum [warrior/protagonist] and the Intelligent/gentried guy).

Typical group was of four, and the four stereotypes of the smart/leader/rogue/intelligent type guy seemed to show up quite a bit!

Dang I hadn't noticed until you posted. That's too bad. We used to watch all those shows. My younger sister used to swoon over Parker Stevenson in the Hardy Boys show. I liked BJ and the Bear (trucker with a monkey! AWESOME!). And, of course Battlestar Galactica was the best.